XBlaze: Code Embryo Review (PS Vita)
XBlaze: Code Embryo is a game that I’ve been eager to play for a long time, more so as it released in North America a year or so ago along with the sequel this year, but the first game has finally arrived on European shores.
XBlaze: Code Embryo is set 150 years before the events of the main BlazBlue series and introduces a lot of the subjects that are now engrained in BlazBlue lore such as Azure – powerful energy -, and how it came to be. XBlaze is surprisingly short but has multiple different endings to go for if you so wish, but thankfully being able to skip text makes this a painless effort. I really enjoyed the story and characters, all of which I found likeable or at least interesting, and it doesn’t have a dull moment with plenty of intrigue, mystery and action that pushes the story forward.
What’s a good story without engaging characters? Main character Toya Kagari is a likeable fellow who only wants to live a normal highschool life but is instead forced to live with android Es, a cute and capable girl who’s adamant of keeping to her mission of protecting Toya. Kuon Glamred Stroheim joins Toya’s school as she too aims to protect Toya and the power he’s capable of, although she’s quicker to make it clear to him that she doesn’t particularly want to spend time with him. There’s a huge cast of characters with fleshed-out allies and villains, and some of them will strongly remind you of certain BlazBlue characters.
Again, the story does last roughly 7-10 hours but if you’re a BlazBlue fan then you’re sure to love this, however, if you don’t enjoy the BlazBlue series then this isn’t going to change your mind. It plods along at a comfortable pace and, being a visual novel, there’s very little to do in the way of gameplay other than reading news articles on your handy dandy TOi and, depending on which you read or skip, it’ll affect your ending. Mostly you’ll be pressing X to proceed the story or leaving it on auto-progress, and it really is mostly just you enjoying the ride it takes you on but I do recommend reading a few of the news articles as they shed light on some of the events of the game.
Visuals are the next most vital point to a visual novel – it’s even in the name of the genre! – and XBlaze only impresses here. I love how dynamic the conversations are and instead of seeing just a couple of portraits moving their mouths, the camera will pan around to give us many different angles and it does a lot to make you feel that you’re in Toya Kagari’s shoes. It keeps up with the fast-paced battles and more humourous situations and refuses to be left behind by the story, and I think it’s visually been one of the most enjoyable visual novels I’ve read and played.
XBlaze is compatible with PlayStation TV, which I primarily played it on, and it transferred to the big screen really well. Subtitles are large and clear and so is the text that’s found in the news article and character data pages. Of course you can’t go wrong playing it on the Vita either, especially as it’s easy to take it onto your sofa and lounge about reading it as you would with a real book – the Vita really is the perfect platform for visual novels and I hope that the sequel makes its way over to the system too and, well, I hope it comes over at all!
As per with the BlazBlue series, the OST is a joy to listen too and packs a surprising amount of different genres in its tracklist. There’s sadly no English Dub, a shame as the BlazBlue dubs were nothing sort of brilliant, although the Japanese voiceover more than does the job but it’s always nice to have an option when a game is so dialogue heavy. I still find it so interesting that many Japanese games seem to have songs created specially for their opening cinematics and XBlaze is no different and whilst it might not reach the same height as the excellent Ao-Iconoclast from the first BlazBlue game, it’s still a tune that’s easy to listen too more than once.
XBlaze: Code Embryo is a gripping visual novel that invites multiple playthroughs and makes a convincing argument considering that the game itself isn’t that long, and it’s something BlazBlue fans will surely be pleased with. It’s been an excruciatingly long wait but it’s finally here and it’s worth it, although it does beg the question as to what took so long but sadly, Arc System Works have a long-running tradition of leaving Europe on the backburner and seemingly forgetting about us to the point many fans will have imported their games. I wish publisher Funbox Media advertised this title more but considering what a small team they are, it’s impressive that they’ve managed to release XBlaze with both physical and digital versions at a great price. If you’re a BlazBlue fan or are interested in the series, then this is both a great starting point and a fantastic way for fans to dive back into the series.
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